1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a fuel door opening/closing apparatus for a vehicle. More particularly, it relates to a fuel door opening/closing apparatus for a vehicle that is configured to lock and release a fuel door for opening and closing an oil filling opening of the vehicle.
2. Background Art
A fuel door, which is often positioned at a rear portion of a vehicle's body, is usually configured to be open in a pop-up manner by control of a driver in a passenger's compartment using an opening lever or switch without using a key.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional fuel door for a vehicle installed at the rear portion of the vehicle. FIGS. 2(a) and (b) illustrates an actuator of a conventional fuel door opening/closing apparatus for a vehicle and a mounting structure thereof.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, in the conventional fuel door opening/closing apparatus for a vehicle, an actuator 30 is installed to a fuel door housing 50, at the front portion of a locking part, by means of a mounting bracket 20. A locking rod 40 operably coupled to the actuator 30 serves to lock and release the fuel door 10 while moving forward and rearward.
The actuator 30 includes a housing 31 mounted to a fuel door housing 50, a motor 32 installed within the housing 31, and a power transmission for moving the locking rod 40 engaged with or released from the fuel door 10.
The power transmission receives power from the motor 32 and moves the locking rod 40 between a locking position and a releasing position. To achieve this, the power transmission includes a first spur gear 33 connected to a shaft of the motor 32, a second spur gear 34 engaged with the first spur gear 33, a screw-shaped connecting gear 35 connected to the second spur gear 34, and a worm gear 36 coupled to the locking rod 40, so as to push or pull the locking rod 40.
In the conventional fuel door opening/closing apparatus, a time lag takes place in the operation thereof while the power from the motor 32 is transmitted to the locking rod 40. Namely, there would be an delay in the operation since the power transmission is subjected to several elements, such as the first spur gear 33 of a small radius, the second spur gear 34 of a large radius, the connecting gear 35 and the worm gear 36, which also leads to increase of noise.
As an operating time of the actuator 30 increases, quality and durability of the gear members of the actuator 30 are continuously degraded due to wear and damage of teeth of the gear members.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, when the locking rod 40 is locked and released, the work gear 36 directly strikes a stopper 37 of the housing 31, causing loud striking noise. Further, the contact surface of the housing 31 is worn by the friction between an end of the worm gear 36 and the housing 31 (for example, the stopper), whereby the durability of the housing 31 is deteriorated. Further, the distance between shafts of the connecting gear 35 and the worm gear 36 might get apart from each other, making it impossible to operate them in a certain section.
Furthermore, in case where the distance between the actuator 30 and the locking position of the locking rod 40 is widened, the locking rod 40 may go through excessive lateral movements (perpendicular to an axis direction) during the locking and releasing operations of the locking rod 40, whereby reliability in operation of the locking rod 40 is deteriorated.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.